1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for managing the production of a job, and more particularly to systems and methods for managing print jobs produced by configurations of printing and finishing devices in one or more facilities.
2. Description of the Background of the Invention
Generally, when a customer requests production of a print job, a production coordinator at a printing facility selects one or more devices at the printing facility that can produce the print job. The production coordinator at the printing facility receives a variety of print job requests from different customers, and due to the specific requirements of each print job, the production coordinator first examines the devices at the printing facility to determine whether the printing facility is capable of producing the print job.
Typically, a printing facility has a variety of presses and finishing (sheeting, folding, stapling, inserting, binding, etc.) devices to accommodate different print jobs, wherein there may be several combinations of printing and finishing devices that can be used to reproduce the capabilities needed to produce the print job. Also, the capabilities of different devices vary, for example, some presses have certain finishing capabilities integrated therewith while other presses are used with in-line or off-line finishing devices. Some presses print with only one color such as black, others print with one or more spot or highlight colors in addition to black, and yet other presses print with four or more process colors (e.g., light cyan, cyan, light magenta, magenta, yellow, black, etc.) to print images. In addition, presses may be roll-fed or sheet-fed, configured to print simplex or duplex (i.e., on one side or both sides of a sheet or web of paper), and/or may print on a variety of roll widths or sheet sizes.
Different devices also differ in data formats that are compatible therewith. Commonly used data formats include PostScript, PDF, AFP and IPDS (the last two are IBM developed formats), Metacode (a Xerox developed format), and IJPDS (a Scitex developed format). For example, a job that includes job files received from a customer in Metacode format would typically be printed using Xerox equipment. However, if the data files can be converted from Metacode to AFP, then IBM equipment may also be used.
The production coordinator analyzes the available devices at the printing facility and identifies one or more device configurations to produce the print job, wherein a device configuration may include an in-line and/or off-line combination of a plurality of devices or the configuration of a single device. In addition, the production coordinator weighs workloads and costs of producing the print job on the device configuration(s) before selecting a device configuration to produce the print job. The production coordinator selects the device configuration that minimizes production time and maximizes profit. The process of selecting the optimal device configuration to produce a job increases in complexity with the size of the print job, the size of the printing facility (i.e., the number of printing and finishing devices), the number of print jobs produced in the printing facility, the use of multiple printing facilities, and so on.